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SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Crimea’s parliament voted yesterday to join Russia, and its Moscow-backed
government set a referendum in 10 days, marking a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the
Ukrainian region that drew a sharp riposte from President Barack Obama.

Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine,
including bans on travel to the United States and freezing of their U.S. assets.

He echoed European Union leaders and the pro-Western government in Ukraine in declaring that the
proposed referendum would violate international law.

Obama also held a one-hour call yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, their second
phone conversation in the past six days, and urged him to accept the terms of a potential
diplomatic solution to the crisis.

But Putin said in a statement today that Kiev’s new authorities came to power in an
unconstitutional coup and had imposed “absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern,
southeastern and Crimea regions.”

“Russia cannot ignore calls for help in this matter, and it acts accordingly, in full compliance
with the international law,” Putin said.

Crimea has an ethnic Russian majority and in effect has been seized by Russian forces.

Yesterday, EU leaders held an emergency summit, groping for ways to pressure Russia to back down
and accept mediation. The EU condemned Russian actions in Crimea as illegal and voiced support for
Ukraine’s territorial integrity but took only minor steps, suspending talks with Moscow on visas
and a new investment pact while warning of tougher steps if no solution is negotiated soon.

In a signal to Moscow, Obama announced plans to punish Russians and Ukrainians involved in what
he called “threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” A U.S. official said
Putin was not on the list of those to be sanctioned.

“The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and
violate international law,” Obama said at the White House. “Any discussion about the future of
Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine.”

After talks in Rome, Secretary of State John Kerry said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was
delivering proposals to Putin to end the crisis in Ukraine.

“We have agreed to stay in close touch in order to see if there is a way forward to try to get
to a negotiating table to get the parties necessary to be able to stabilize this,” Kerry said.

Kerry said the executive order on sanctions signed by Obama yesterday provided a legal framework
for imposing sanctions but also left open the door for dialogue over Ukraine.

The White House said Obama emphasized to Putin yesterday that Russia’s incursion into Ukraine
was a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Obama outlined the terms of a diplomatic “off-ramp” that U.S. officials are promoting, in which
Russia would pull back troops to bases in Crimea, allow in international monitors to ensure the
rights of ethnic Russians are respected and consent to direct talks with Ukrainian officials.

The Pentagon announced a large-scale Air Force exercise in Poland that Washington’s ambassador
to Warsaw said had been augmented to reassure U.S. allies in the region rattled by the Ukraine
crisis.

The crisis began in November when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, under Russian pressure,
turned his back on a trade deal with the EU and accepted a $15 billion bailout from Moscow. That
prompted three months of street protests leading to the overthrow of Yanukovych on Feb. 22.

Moscow refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities.

The Crimean parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday “to enter into the Russian Federation with
the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation.”

The vice premier of Crimea, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, said a referendum on
the status will take place on March 16. All state property would be “nationalized,” the Russian
ruble adopted and Ukrainian troops treated as occupiers and forced to surrender or leave, he
said.

On the ground, a mission of 35 unarmed military observers from the Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe was stopped from entering Crimea by unidentified men in
military fatigues when they traveled from the port of Odessa, Poland’s defense minister said.

Putin has cited threats to Russian citizens to justify military action in Ukraine, as he did in
Georgia in 2008. Far from seeking a diplomatic way out of the present crisis, Putin appears to have
chosen to act before the West can agree on more than token action against him.